Once Upon A Time
by Spiralling-Down
Summary: James, Albus and Lily are demanding a bedtime story - one they haven't heard a thousand times before. With Beedle the Bard thoroughly exhausted, Harry decides it's time to bring out the tale of daring Prince Harry and the beautiful Princess Ginevra... Oneshot.


**Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling, and seeing as she hasn't yet turned up at my front door to offer me the rights to Harry Potter, I don't own anything here. :P (I'm still patiently waiting for that day… Maybe she'll bring my Hogwarts acceptance letter with her.)**

* * *

"Daddy, Daddy!"

"Mummy! Where are you, Mummy?"

"Stop being so slow, Daddy!"

With a long-suffering sigh, Harry massaged his temples. He could feel the beginnings of a pounding headache coming on, as the piercing voices of his two sons and his daughter cut through the air. He had had a very long day at work, filling out reports for the Auror office, and he'd been looking forward to a peaceful evening with Ginny. However, judging by the looks on his children's faces, that was now out of the question. After all, who needed Voldemort when you had a bunch of ever-so-slightly hyperactive children to contend with?

Just then, Harry felt a sharp tug on his trouser leg, and he looked down to see his four-year-old daughter, Lily. She was dressed in her purple pyjamas and was now glaring up at him with surprising ferocity, considering her young age.

"Come _on_, Daddy," she whined.

"Yeah," said James, barging past Albus and into Harry's field of vision. "You said you'd read us a bedtime story _ten whole minutes ago_!"

Harry suppressed a groan, and glanced down at his watch. "It's getting quite late… Lily should have been in bed half an hour ago."

"I'm not tired!"

"Anyway, me and James don't go to bed for ages yet," piped up Albus.

"It's not fair if they get a story and I don't," Lily said quickly. She gazed up at Harry, her bottom lip beginning to tremble…

"Oh, all right," said Harry, finally caving in to their wishes. But there was no way he was going to let Ginny escape that easily... "Why don't you three go and wait upstairs? I'll be up in a moment – I'm just going to go and find Mummy."

Any signs of misery vanished at once, and Lily beamed up at him. She ran happily off to scamper up the stairs to her bedroom, closely followed by James and Albus, who already seemed to be bickering with each other. ("Ow! James keeps pinching me!")

Harry smiled, before turning towards the kitchen. "Ginny? Bit of help would be nice."

* * *

Five minutes later, Harry entered Lily's bedroom, accompanied by a slightly reluctant Ginny, who kept glowering at the back of her husband's head. James, Albus and Lily were already crowded onto the little bed in the corner of the room, the bedsprings creaking as the three children bounced up and down. Albus and James were still shoving at each other in mid-bounce.

"James, Albus, settle down and stop fighting, or there won't be a story," said Ginny. In an undertone to Harry, she added, "Merlin… What will it take to tire those two out?"

However, her threat had worked, and all three children were soon sitting obediently on the bed, their eyes fixed on Harry and Ginny. Harry went to select a book from the shelf at the side of the room. He opened it at random and began to read.

"The Wizard and the Hopping-"

"We've heard that one," interrupted James, rolling his eyes.

"Well can't you listen to it again?" said Harry in slight desperation.

"I'm bored of it," Albus said. "Are there any other stories?"

"How about Babbity Rabbity?" suggested Ginny. "That's a nice one."

"I don't like Babbity Rabbity," said Lily stubbornly. "It scares me."

"How does it scare you?" asked James incredulously, staring at his sister. "How can it _possibly _scare you? It's just a story, it-"

"All right, all right," said Harry, breaking up the argument. "I've got a story to tell you that you've never heard before, because it isn't in any book." He paused, waiting for the three children to settle down again, and then cleared his throat. "This is the story of Princess Ginevra and… erm… Prince Harry."

"But those are your names!" said Lily looking from one parent to the other, as Ginny sent an amused look in Harry's direction.

"Yeah," said Albus slowly, his forehead creased in concentration. "But it can't be Mummy and Daddy."

"Why not?" asked Ginny indignantly.

"Because you're not a fairy tale princess! And Daddy isn't a prince. You're just Mummy," Albus told her, as if it was blindingly obvious to even the most dim-witted of people. Lily and James both nodded earnestly.

"Well, anyway, I'd quite like to get on with the story, if you don't mind," cut in Harry, before Ginny had a chance to retaliate. "Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom far, far away, there lived a beautiful and good princess, with hair as red as flames and as soft as feathers-" Ginny had to smother a laugh at this, "-and her name was Princess Ginevra."

"But a long way away," said Ginny, "in the Muggle kingdom, far from Princess Ginevra's home, lived the bold and brave Prince Harry-"

"-who was dashingly handsome."

"-who was a scrawny midget."

"Hey! He was not!"

"Oh, all right then. Prince Harry was the most handsome man in all the land, and every girl from far and wide – and probably a few boys as well – loved him. Even Princess Ginevra. But despite her daydreams-"

"-as she sat brushing her long, fiery hair in her turret room-" Harry smirked.

"She didn't sit meekly at home, brushing her hair like a dainty little fairy, Harry! She did daring battle with the forces of evil! Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, despite her daydreams, she never thought she'd actually get the chance to meet the prince," said Ginny, before muttering under her breath, "And I can hardly see now why she wanted to meet the little prat in the first place…" She narrowed her eyes at Harry, who had the decency to blush slightly. "But in any case, one day, she came downstairs to find Prince Harry standing in her doorway."

"Oooh," said Lily, her eyes shining. "Was it love at first sight?"

"Not quite yet," said Harry. "But Princess Ginevra did stick her elbow in the butter dish."

"No she didn't! This is a princess we're talking about! She remained calm and composed throughout the whole meeting," said Ginny, elbowing Harry in the ribs.

Harry tried valiantly to suppress laughter, failed, and then decided to press on with the story. "Princess Ginevra and Prince Harry, though both skilled warriors, were not yet learned in the fine art of spell-casting, so they were sent away together to a remote castle, where they were taught by the finest witches and wizards of their time to perform magic."

"Basically, they went to Hogwarts," said James in a stage whisper, rolling his eyes at his parents. As the oldest, he was no longer as naïve as his siblings, and knew better than them not to take the story at face value. "This story's boring and soppy. Isn't anything going to _happen_?"

"Shush, James," Ginny told him. "At Hog- I mean, the castle of magic – trouble was brewing. An evil snake was roaming the grounds, and all the people were very afraid. Nobody dared to go near the snake, but even if they had, they would have found it very difficult, because it lived in a secret underground lair that nobody could find. Most people didn't even believe that the lair existed; they thought it was just a myth. But then one day, the snake kidnapped Princess Ginevra and took her down to its hideaway underneath the castle."

Suddenly, Albus' hand shot into the air.

"Yes, Albus?" asked Harry, chuckling softly to himself.

"Could it maybe be an evil dragon instead of a snake?" said Albus earnestly. "Snakes are boring."

"All right then," said Ginny with a smile, "it was an evil dragon." They were already bending the truth rather a lot, not wanting their children to hear the full extent of the terror that Voldemort had brought to the wizarding world. What was the harm in introducing one measly little dragon to the tale?

"Was it big and scary?"

"Oh yes, it was very big and very scary – so scary, in fact, that it could kill people with a single glance."

"Wow…" breathed Albus, his mouth falling slightly open.

"Now, everyone thought that Princess Ginevra was dragon food for sure," said Harry, with an apologetic glance at Ginny. "But Prince Harry and his loyal friend, the daring knight, Sir Ronald, wouldn't give up. They decided to set out on a dangerous quest to rescue Princess Ginevra from the clutches of the dragon. Together, they searched high and low for the dragon's den, and eventually, with the help of their fairy godmother-" Here, Harry had to mask a snigger, "-Gilderoy Lockhart, they managed to find its secret entrance, hidden away in the depths of the castle."

Lily's eyes lit up. "What did Lock- Locked Heart do to help?" she said. She was quite keen on fairies at the moment, and Harry had practically seen her ears prick up at the mention of a fairy godmother.

Harry leaned forwards. "Just between you and me," he whispered conspiratorially, "fairy godmothers are actually a bit useless."

Lily giggled, and settled back against the wall, looking up eagerly at her parents. "So what happened next?"

"Prince Harry entered the dragon's lair, determined to save the lovely Princess Ginevra from certain death. The second he entered the cave, he found the dragon lying in wait for him! It had giant fangs, and scaly skin, and it was holding Princess Ginevra captive, where Prince Harry couldn't reach her. It was only then that Prince Harry realised that he was barely armed and had no way of fighting the huge, vicious dragon that was facing him. He drew in his breath, hoping for the best, and-"

"Prince Harry's an idiot," said James, crossing his arms and smirking. "I wouldn't go in unarmed – I'd have a wand, and a sword, and a giant shield that couldn't be broken by anything, and another wand in case the first one got snapped, and-"

"All right, James, we get the picture," said Ginny. "And yes, you're right. Prince Harry is often a bit of an idiot. A noble idiot, but an idiot all the same."

"Perhaps Prince Harry should have left Princess Ginevra to the dragon," said Harry, raising his eyebrows, "if he's going to be mocked like this for his valiant attempt at a rescue…"

By this point, Lily was bobbing up and down impatiently. "So how _did _he defeat the dragon and save Princess Ginevra?"

"Prince Harry was just trying to work out what to do – he was considering grabbing Princess Ginevra and making a run for it – a heroic run, of course – when a phoenix flew in to his rescue. The phoenix dropped a hat into Prince Harry's outstretched hands, and from that hat, he pulled a magical sword, which could only be retrieved by the worthy and the brave."

"Oh, stop boasting," muttered Ginny, prodding Harry in the arm.

"I'm only telling the story how it is," Harry whispered back to her, the corner of his mouth twitching into a slight smile. "So Prince Harry quickly picked up the sword and turned – bravely, boldly and heroically – to face the dragon. With a _mighty _swish of the blade, he slayed the dragon, thus saving the life of Princess Ginevra."

"And then they fell in love?" asked Lily.

"Princess Ginevra was already very much in love with Prince Harry," said Ginny. "It was just a shame that Prince Harry hadn't realised yet that he was also in love with Princess Ginevra; he was only being noble, and helping out his friend, Sir Ronald of the Food-Laden Table. And so our story continues... After Prince Harry had rescued Princess Ginevra, they both went on to have many daring adventures. Prince Harry took part in a huge, renowned tournament, in which he had to fight a dragon-"

"He didn't hurt the dragon, did he?" said Albus anxiously.

"You really are taking after Uncle Charlie, aren't you?" said Ginny. "But no, he didn't hurt the dragon; he just had to collect a magical golden egg. After that, he had to swim through dangerous waters to save the one person who was most important to him."

"Was it Princess Ginevra?" asked Lily excitedly.

"No, actually, it wasn't. It was Sir Ronald."

"Oh. Was Prince Harry in love with Sir Ronald then?"

Harry almost choked on thin air. "No, no, he wasn't."

"Oh, I think Prince Harry loved Sir Ronald very much, deep down…" said Ginny, a slightly malicious smile curving her lips.

"As a brother," Harry added hurriedly, painfully aware that his cheeks were rapidly changing colour to a rather unattractive shade of crimson. "Just as a brother. Anyhow, Prince Harry saved Sir Ronald from the watery depths of the lake and completed the task. Done."

"Finally, Prince Harry had to make his way through a fantastic maze, filled with perilous challenges and vicious creatures. But it was only at the very end of the maze that Prince Harry encountered the most terrifying obstacle yet. Because there, at the end of the final task, the most evil wizard you will ever come across returned to his full strength, ready to try to rule the world! Now, what you have to understand about this wizard is how afraid of him everyone was. He was so evil, so cruel, that almost nobody in the whole kingdom, except for Prince Harry, dared even to say his name. Even Princess Ginevra, who was generally very brave and adventurous, had grown up being taught to fear him. Hardly anything scared her more than the idea of him taking control."

Here, Ginny trailed off, unsure of how much to say. This story had only been intended as a bit of fun, to get the children off to sleep, but she was repulsed by the idea of downplaying Voldemort's reign of terror, after so many innocent people had died at his hands, including her own brother. Harry, sensing her discomfort, reached over to squeeze her hand briefly.

"Prince Harry and Princess Ginevra knew they couldn't let such a terrible person gain power," he said, taking over the story. "Luckily, they weren't the only ones who understood the danger that lay ahead of them, and they soon gathered together a strong army, which was prepared to fight against the forces of evil whatever the cost. Sir Ronald, and Prince Harry's other great friend, Lady Hermione, were at the head of the army, along with Prince Harry and Princess Ginevra, and they fought together, side by side, for the next few years, refusing to back down from what they knew was right."

Ginny smiled, relieved that Harry had managed to steer the focus away from Voldemort and onto their side. She looked over at James, Albus and Lily. Even James looked wide-eyed and open-mouthed, totally drawn into the story, though all three of them were beginning to show distinct signs of tiredness. They only had to keep the story spinning out for a couple more minutes, and the children would be dropping off sleep.

"Prince Harry and Princess Ginevra always kept their spirits high, and refused to back down. Too much was at stake for them to risk failure," Ginny said. "Over the course of the great war, they did battle against a huge variety of dark witches and wizards, from the ugly hag, Umbridge, whom some believed to be part troll, to the allies of the evil wizard himself. Eventually, as everyone was growing weary from the fight, Prince Harry came face to face with the evil wizard himself. Prince Harry challenged him to a duel, and fought bravely against him. Though there was one moment when Princess Ginevra, Sir Ronald and Lady Hermione believed that he was dead, Prince Harry finally triumphed, through the goodness, purity and love that was in his heart. The evil wizard fell, never to return. Good was stronger than evil; light beat dark; and so Prince Harry saved the whole kingdom from a terrible fate, and became a true hero in their eyes."

Ginny looked over towards the bed and smiled. All three children had finally fallen asleep, sprawled in a heap over the bed. Albus was curled up in a tight ball at the head of the bed, his cheek cushioned on one arm as he drooled steadily onto the pillow. James, meanwhile, was slumped backwards against the wall, his chest rising and falling steadily as he snored lightly. Lily's head had drooped sideways onto his shoulder, and her legs were curled cat-like beneath her.

Ginny turned back to Harry. Very softly, to be sure not to wake the sleeping children, she said, "And that was when Prince Harry and Princess Ginevra finally fell in love for good."

Harry reached forward to cup Ginny's cheek in one hand. "From that day onwards," he said, "Prince Harry knew that in reality, it was Princess Ginevra who had saved him from the monsters, not the other way round."

"And they lived happily ever after."

Ginny leaned forwards, brushing Harry's fringe out of his eyes with one hand, and kissed him lightly on the lips.

* * *

**Author's Note: I think this is the first time I've written the Next Gen children… It was pretty fun, even though they weren't actually the main feature of the story! :P Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and reviews are very much appreciated if you have a moment to spare. :)**


End file.
